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I like to explore coffee shops often. Living in the Bay Area there are tons to choose from and I pick a handful or so to visit per month, drive to ’em and scope them out. This time I went to San Jose’s new Paris Baguette location on Hostetter Road. I used to blog about visiting the coffee shops on a weekly/bi-weekly basis, and I think I should start up again. Especially if you’re new to the area and love going to them as much as I do.

Back in April I was invited to attend their grand opening, but unfortunately it fell on the day after Alfie was attacked by another dog. I cancelled on them, and ended up going in to check it out for myself a little while later. You might’ve seen the army of photos I posted on my Instagram in May.

The one-bites was my favourite. They’re a circular shaped pastry with different berries as the toppings, and inside was a creamy donut-like filling. Almost like a boston cream donut from Tim Hortons. Heh! Ohhh delicious city. Brings back great memories looking at these pics. Can you tell we love our sweets?

This isn’t your traditional coffee shop (although I like to title the post that, because their lattes here at Paris Baguette are amazing and have designs in them), it’s more of a French-inspired cafe with delicious pastries, cakes, donuts, sandwiches and the like. It’s a serve-yourself style cafe which is great because you can take as long as you want picking out your goodies.

I met with the franchise owner, Joshua Kim for about an hour, discussing everything from his business, to our families, and even chatting about both of us immigrating to the USA. He and his wife is the first franchisee since Paris Baguette in the USA and recently opened the Paris Baguette cafe located on Hofstetter Road in San Jose. But what I didn’t realize from my previous visits to Paris Baguette (before I knew Mr. Kim) was that Paris Baguette originated from South Korea, and is more popular over there than Starbucks is! Unreal.

The newest Paris Baguette is my favourite one of the few that I’ve visited, mainly for the gorgeous aesthetics — and the friendly staff (not to say I haven’t had good customer service elsewhere). I love the wooden accent wall, and the huge dining tables where you could perhaps meet a new friend over coffee. Since I usually go to coffee shops on my own, I like to sit in an area where it’s open and I can present myself in a way that I’m friendly, and eager to chat. Perhaps that’s just the Canadian in me, but that’s what I liked to do.

You should try it out if you’re in the area, and definitely pick up one of their vanilla lattes — they taste amazing plus you can’t beat the cute designs in the drink. I got a swan!

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At just about two weeks old, I randomly came across the new Bellano coffee shop called Social Policy in downtown San Jose this morning. It’s a gorgeous clean lined and beautiful design inside with the most perfect lighting for capturing photos of the place. I couldn’t stop getting up from my seat to snap photos.

Not many people sitting around drinking their morning fix since it’s so new. I can only assume it’s due to people not knowing it’s open yet. I had a chat with the guy working there, and he said that this location was previously a spot called Black Bird Tavern. Having not been too familiar with downtown San Jose, I was never in that tavern before it closed down to become Social Policy.

Bellano has always focused on coffee but Social Policy has branched out and is serving up pastries and snacks, and I’ve been told they’re working on opening up a kitchen to serve more food than baked goods.

I often like to take some me-time for an hour or so a few times a week, to turn off my phone (putting it in airplane mode) and enjoy my quiet time at coffee shops. I people watch, mainly — and it’s especially interesting to do so, here in the Bay Area. I can only imagine what sort of new deals are going down with the big wigs, or ideas people are coming up with.

It was a cool experience drinking my morning latte there today, the staff were neighbourly and chatty with me. I’ll definitely be back, especially that time of morning watching the commuters on the VTA train right outside the front door.

Definitely give their vanilla latte, and a piece of banana bread a shot. :)

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Megan and I scoped out a super cool coffee shop when she was living here in San Francisco, so needless to stay we stuck around a while and snapped endless amounts of photos together. Sightglass is one beautiful spot to grab a delicious coffee made from house-roasted beans served along with baked goods in a bi-level, industrial space.

Love the vibe of this place. Everyone seemed to be doing their own thing (naturally). But the ambiance was just wicked here. Huge open space, lofty type feel, perfect to warm up your belly with some delicious coffee. Or in my case, iced coffee. Sightglass is an independent, sibling-owned coffee company in San Francisco.

They take trips to Columbia to source their coffee beans, and spend time on the ground, at farm level with their producers; come back and write about their experience on their own Sightglass blog. Wild experiences in all sorts of countries I can only dream about visiting. I mean, nothing is really holding us back, but you know what I mean.